Chapter 16: PvP
Tower of Fate, Floor 52.
"Haa... haa..."
Lee Geonho collapsed onto a pile of Goblin corpses, breathing heavily.
Ten years...
It had already been a week since he signed that ten-year slave contract.
Every day, the moment he opened his eyes, he threw himself into the Tower and hunted.
Three hours of sleep a day.
Compressed nutrition bars for food.
He even held in his need to use the bathroom because he couldn't afford to waste time, then handled everything at once later.
What's the point of living like this?
At this rate, he would spend his entire life working and die.
Still, he had to survive.
An eighty-billion-won debt!
Well, technically, after signing the new contract with Friends Capital, he was now repaying it through labor.
Either way, dying here would be the most pointless death imaginable.
"Haa..."
He took out a water bottle and gulped it down.
Then...
Step. Step. Step.
He suddenly heard footsteps.
Several pairs of them.
This is my secret farming spot.
It wasn't well known, but the monster respawn rate was good, so he had carefully claimed it for himself.
Who is it?
He turned his head.
Three or four men in perfectly fitted suits were walking straight toward the spot where Lee Geonho had been hunting.
What the hell?
Suits inside the Tower?
They didn't look like Hunters at all.
Yet every one of them walked casually.
They weren't rushing.
They didn't look afraid either.
Are they not scared of monsters?
Lee Geonho frowned.
He had discovered and secured this spot after an entire week of brutal hunting.
The Goblins respawned quickly and appeared in dense groups.
Good spots like this weren't common.
Yet these suit-wearing men seemed to be heading right into the middle of it.
"Excuse me!"
Lee Geonho raised his hand.
The suited men stopped and looked at him.
More precisely, they looked him up and down.
What's with those eyes?
They were staring at him like he was an insect.
An insect? Me? An A-rank Hunter?
When they started walking again without saying anything, Lee Geonho became anxious.
If he lost this spot, today's hunting quota would be ruined.
Then he'd have to stay up all night again.
I owe eighty billion won!
Of course...
I'm not actually going to pay it.
He planned to pretend to repay the debt for a while.
Then, once the loan shark's surveillance loosened, he would run.
"What?"
"This spot."
Lee Geonho answered shortly.
He was so exhausted that even speaking politely felt difficult.
"...What?"
The bald man in front stopped.
He was huge.
His neck was thick, and his ears were mangled.
He looked like either an athlete or someone who made a living through violent physical work.
"I said this is my spot. I was hunting here first. And for the record, I'm A-rank."
Lee Geonho kicked one of the Goblin corpses as if presenting evidence.
A hunting spot.
In MMORPGs, players often claimed good hunting grounds first and treated them as private territory until they left or sold the spot.
That strange MMORPG culture had spread into the Tower as well.
Of course, some people disliked that custom.
Some outright hated it.
Lee Geonho had a bad feeling.
The men in front of him seemed to belong to the second group.
"Pfft."
"Hey, did you hear that?"
"He said, 'This is my spot.'"
They laughed.
Lee Geonho couldn't tell whether they were mocking him or simply stunned by his stupidity.
The man in front slowly approached.
Every step felt heavy.
"Did you just tell me this is your spot?"
"Huh?"
"Say it again. What did you just say?"
Lee Geonho finally sensed something was wrong.
But it was too late.
Exhaustion had dulled his judgment.
"I'm asking you to move. I was here first..."
"You little bastard!"
Bam!
The fist struck before he could finish.
Lee Geonho's body flew through the air and slammed into the ground.
"Ugh!"
Even an A-rank Hunter's defense couldn't easily withstand that impact.
Only then did Lee Geonho realize it.
These bastards... aren't ordinary.
If they could do this to an A-rank Hunter like him...
Then they were probably A-rank too.
He realized it far too late.
Maybe he could handle one of them.
But there were several.
The man in front loosened his tie.
"What kind of bastard claims a hunting spot in our bosses' territory, huh?"
"S-Sorry! I didn't recognize you!"
Lee Geonho dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
But the atmosphere had already become too violent to reverse.
"You think not recognizing us makes it fine? What is this, your living room? Did you rent the place?"
"I'm really sorry. I have circumstances..."
"Don't give me that bullshit."
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Merciless kicks rained down.
Lee Geonho couldn't even defend himself.
He could barely scream.
"He said he's A-rank, right?"
"He's just a loser with an A-rank ability."
"What's wrong with A-ranks these days? No discipline at all."
One of the men standing nearby folded his arms and lit a cigarette.
"Let's finish this, hyung. We're short on time."
"Yeah. We should."
Crack!
"I'll teach you some manners."
The man grabbed Lee Geonho by the neck.
Then twisted.
"Uh? I was only trying to cripple him, but he died."
The man looked slightly surprised.
Then he shrugged.
"Whatever. Bury him somewhere nobody will notice."
"Yes, hyung."
Even until the very end, Lee Geonho couldn't understand why he was dying.
Just because I said... 'This is my spot'...
That was WaterPuppy, Lee Geonho's final thought.
"Done burying him? Let's go."
"Yes, hyung."
The men in suits casually settled into Lee Geonho's hunting spot as if nothing had happened.
"Fuck. If we don't replace the chairman's missing one-billion-won slush fund within ten days, we're all dead."
"He told us to repay triple for failing to protect it, so we need to make three hundred million won a day, hyung."
"Then stop talking and move, asshole!"
"Yes, hyung!"
Three days later.
The East Sea.
I was facing a problem.
[Important resources inside the Tower can only be extracted after clearing the corresponding floor.]
I had planned to open a Gate to the oil buried beneath Floor 25, Endless Desert, and become an oil tycoon.
This was the first crack in my perfect plan.
"Why are you only telling me this now?"
This time, the system didn't answer.
